The present invention relates to a video game machine, a gaming image display control method and a display mode switching control method which make it possible to switch between two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D, or stereoscopic) presentations to selectively provide a 2D or 3D on-screen gaming image.
Conventionally, various techniques for presenting a 3D image on a display screen have been proposed. Parallax barrier systems are a commonly known approach to 3D image presentation. 3D display technology includes so-called glass-type display methods that uses a combination of a polarizer or a liquid crystal display (LCD) shutter and viewing glasses as well as parallax panoramagram and lenticular systems which are particularly well-known examples of glasses-free display methods. A technique proposed in recent years is related to a new display method that will make it possible to switch between 2D and 3D image displays. Specifically, Japanese Patent No. 3973525 describes a mobile telephone having an LCD panel monitor with a parallax barrier system implemented therein. A portable personal computer and the mobile telephone described in Japanese Patent No. 3973525 are structured such that a barrier built in the LCD panel is deactivated when a 2D display is selected whereas the LCD panel barrier is activated when a 3D display is selected and, in the latter case, a 3D image including left- and right-eye images generated based on image data received from an external storage medium through a network is led to a monitor screen for displaying the 3D image thereon.
An apparatus described in Japanese Patent No. 3973525 requires image data for 3D image presentation received by a special mobile telephone, the image data including specially prepared 3D image data contents obtained from a website or an e-mail. Additionally, although the above-cited Japanese Patent mentions that the apparatus incorporates a processor which can convert an already available 2D image into 3D image data for stereoscopic viewing, it is only possible to obtain a “simulated” 3D image. Moreover, this Japanese Patent describes only such am arrangement that makes it possible to acquire 3D image data from an external source or to generate a simulated 3D image from a 2D image but contains no mention of a relationship between locations of two cameras. In particular, this Japanese Patent does not propose any arrangement for solving problems associated with switching between 2D and 3D presentations.